Straub'sit Isn't

TABLE MATTERS

You Probably Couldn't Find A Better Name For Seafood In The Orlando Area Than Straub's.

January 30, 2000|By Scott Joseph, Sentinel Restaurant Critic

Straub's Fine Seafood restaurants in Orlando and Altamonte Springs have won Florida magazine Foodie awards from readers for two years running, and last year I threw my vote in for critic's choice too.

When owner Rob Straub and his partner, Don Carter, bought the old Bakerstreet Grill space on Lee Road, they knew they didn't want to compete with the seafood restaurants. So they named the place Nick's Boat Yard when it opened in late summer of '95. Better business sense prompted Straub to put his name on the place.

And so Straub's Boat Yard, which wanted to be thought of as more of an American restaurant than specifically seafood, continued until late last year.

Then, a change. Suddenly Straub's Boat Yard is gone and Morgan's Lobster House is in its place. The ownership is the same. But this is not a Straub's.

Boy, you can say that again.

First there's the concept. This is an all-you-can-eat seafood operation with a set price of $25.95, $19.95 during the early-bird hours. (Just try getting to the door through the crowds before 6 p.m.) And, yes, that does include lobster have as much as you want. The irony is that if you really love lobster you may not want very much.

The operation is based on other seafood buffets mostly in the Tourist World parts of town. The quality is nearly universally dismal. But when Straub announced that he would try his hand marketing the concept to locals rather than the tourist-on-a-budget bunch, I thought if anyone could pull it off, he could.

But sadly the quality of the food here is no better than at any of the others. What is more, the whole operation is so un-Straublike that disappointment doesn't begin to describe my reaction.

Take the surroundings. The restaurant is a multi-roomed complex. The bar, which had occupied the space just inside the front door, has been moved over a couple of rooms. The U-shaped buffet occupies that place now. Most of the rest of the decorations and furnishings have remained. That includes the carpet that 4 ASCIICHAR_ab years ago was brightly colored with paint drizzles that were supposed to suggest a working boat yard.

Now that carpet is so worn and dirty, it's repulsive. And not just the carpet. From where my guest and I were seated we could see into a service area, the floor of which was also littered and unclean.

Service was also less than expected. With a self-service buffet, there isn't a whole lot more for a waiter to do than clear used plates. Yet at the end of my meal the table was covered with used dishes. Water glasses were largely ignored. And the staff tending the buffet had minimal customer relations' skills and little concern for the appearance of the food tables. One fellow talked into his headset, presumably to someone in the kitchen, while serving guests. I watched bemused as another plopped a cake on a stand atop the detritus left from the previously ravaged cake.

The food selection would be impressive if the quality were better. To begin, there is a cold seafood buffet with an array of mussels, clams and oysters on the half shell along with peel-them-yourself crawfish and shrimp. There's also a bowl of Jonah crab claws and some of the fish dip that is served at the Straub's seafood restaurants. The crab claws and the oysters were good, and I suppose you could just sit and eat those all night and get your money's worth. But silly me, I moved on to the hot food.

The hot appetizers included oysters Rockefeller, stuffed clams, mussels marinara, steamed clams, Cajun catfish fingers, chicken and sausage jambalaya and chicken wings. The oysters Rockefeller were flavorless and had a distinct made-far-in-advance quality. And there may or may not have actually been clams somewhere beneath all that breading. The jambalaya was heavily spiced with cumin or pepper, and there wasn't anything Cajunesque about the catfish fingers.

The main feature of the buffet's entree section is, of course, lobster. These are smallish North Atlantic lobsters served whole and doled out by the attendant. It's up to you to crack, split and tear your way through the shell to the meat. Nothing wrong with that, but wouldn't it be nice if they offered you a moist towelette? These are basically the same as Maine lobsters, only from Canada where laws permit harvesting at an earlier age. But this isn't the same as young veal -- the meat of this lobster was a little too tough and dry.

Next to the lobster is a prime rib, which is also sliced by an attendant. The prime rib was good and had appropriate tender characteristics.

The rest of the buffet is self-serve, including the snow crab legs. When I went by the buffet on my second visit the only legs left were of those who definitely did not make the crab basketball team. More were on the way, a server told a disappointed customer. The best of the hot entrees was the mesquite-grilled marinated salmon. Though portioned into tiny squares, the fish had good flavor and was cooked just right.

Not so the fresh dolphin ($14.95) that my guest ordered from the a la carte menu. The fillet looked like the sort of fish Straub's is famous for, but it was not cooked throughout.

Rob Straub said he didn't want Morgan's to be the best seafood restaurant in town, he just wanted to be the best seafood buffet in town. There are higher goals to set for yourself.